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The Stamford Hill Mine
Circa 1850-63
No Previous Production, No Modern Exploration, No Problem!
Historical resource 500,000 tons @ 5% Cu 15 ounces per ton Gold reported

Historical Underground Mines

The current cycle of demand for minerals,

combined with

concerns regarding the

environment and land use which

are now an integral part of open-pit mine

development,

have

resulted in an economic

situation where vein

deposits

exploitable by

underground mining methods

are

increasingly

viable exploration targets. Folk

NI 43101

            STAMFORD Hill PROSPECT HISTORY

The Stamford Hill Prospect is akin to the Charing

Cross

Prospect in that it was extensively explored

during the

mineral

boom of the 1850's. Physically

the Stamford Hill

Prospect is

located only three

quarters of a mile north of

the

Charing

Cross

workings and their histories are

somewhat

similar.

In fact, at one time there was consideration given

linking

the

two prospects underground and

working

both properties

from the lower elevation

of the Charing

Cross site.

See diagram

top

right

The Stamford Hill Prospect was explored by the

Clarendon

Consolidated Copper Mining Company of

Jamaica which

began

work in 1852-53 having an

initial

capitalization of

80,000 pounds

sterling.

Operations

continued until 1863

during which time

the

company

initially excavated three

access adits

for a minimum

540 feet and subsequently

sank an

access shaft to a

depth

of 102 fms. (622 feet) out

a target depth of 128

fms. (780 feet).

The latter depth was never reached due to a

combination

of a

number of events, namely, death

of the mine captain,

failure

pumps, inadequacy

of the engine to reach the

target depth

and

a lack

of sufficient capital to remedy all

the above

problems.

However, during the coarse of work

the

Stamford Hill site,

the company opened eight

levels at

roughly 75 foot intervals,

carried out

extensive

drifting and

raising on these levels, and

erected all the

necessary

infrastructure to support

the mining

activity,

including the

clearing of a 4

mile road over

mountainous

terrain between

the

mine site and the village of

Retreat

where an ore

dressing facility was established.

The main vein, "Stamford Hill Vein", appears to

have been

continuous through a distance of 648

feet from surface to

the

bottom of the shaft and to

the 480 foot level, at least,

was a

consistent 20

feet in width. Mineralization seems

to have

occurred in a disseminated fashion throughout

the

vein, a

feature not considered favorable at the

time.

The overall

grade

is difficult to establish

from the

accounts available

save to say

that it

appears to have

been in the range of

copper,

although in areas where

mineralization assumed a

more

massive character,

which occurred on the 46

level,

values up

to 25% are

reported.

Those comments regarding ore grade do seem to be

consistent in that the overall grade was less than

the

adjoining

Charing Cross mine where grades

were in the

15-

20% copper

range. At the time, it

was considered that

grades

would need

to be in

the 8% copper range to

compete with the

Cornish

mines and bear the additional

shipping cost from

Jamaica to

England for processing.

Stamford Hill Mine Shaft & Tunnel
Diagram

1 st Adit Level P hotos 2008
click here

Stamford Hill Mine Survey Report 2008 JCO

Stamford Hill-Charing Cross Mine Diagram
Click to enlarge

Stamford Hill Mine Shaft & Tunnel
Diagram Clarendon 2008

Sawkins Report on Gold in Jamaica

Gold. -

This precious metal was found associated

with some of the oxidized copper ores (blue and

green carbonates) of the Clarendon mines, as

stated in reports of assays made in England. These

mines were visited by the surveyors for the purpose

of examining into the occurrence of these auriferous

minerals. The officer in charge pointed out No. 1,

shaft as the locality which had produced the

carbonates and surface ores in question.

The relative richness was stated to amount to “15

ounces

per ton; a very large yield indeed. But the

correctness of this assertion may perhaps be

corroborated from the tradition of the Spaniards

having obtained gold here, and from their having

named an adjacent elevation “The Gold Mine”. At the

time of the visit of the surveyors it was impossible to

prosecute any mineral or geological researches as

the workings were long abandoned and the vicinity

completely grown over by bush.

Sawkins 1869.

The Clarendon mines at Charing Cross and
Stamford Hill afford a nearer approach to true lodes
or mineral veins than any of the other metalliferous
deposits of Jamaica. Without being contained in
mechanical fissures, still the deposits are bounded
by definite walls and characterized by distinct
gangue and ribs of ore. The width of the veins
sometimes attains 16 inches, and they seem to
occupy definite zones of lines of weakness in the
porphyry, which is the containing rock. Whether
these zones are due to fracture of merely to a
divisional structure of the rock is uncertain, but we
incline to the latter supposition.

Where the copper ores approach the surface
sulpherets are converted by the action of surface
water into blue or green carbonates and intimately
mingled with gold disseminated in small grains and
threads. From the ignorance of the parties
conduction the labours of the mine at the period
these ores were taken from it, the gold was
regarded as pyrites, and as the carbonates of
copper were considered of too low a percentage to
bear the expense of exportation, they were thrown
among the debris of the mine into a deep gully, and
when the geologist visited these mines in February
and April 1865, they found the lower adit the only
one in a state to inspect, the upper shafts and
levels had run together, and the weeds and bushes
grown over their entrances. Sawkins 1869.

Above Left:
Stamford Hill Mine Shaft & Tunnel
Diagram with recent assays from
samples collected by Clarendon
2008 Photo taken from Calabash
Ridge.

Above Right:
Stamford Hill vein with proposed
drill locations and directions STC

Left:
Rich Messenger
BSc, MRes FGS
examines rock found in gully
outside of 1st adit level July
2009.
Fire assay resulted in 2.5 g/t Au,
8.2% Cu, 14 ppm Ag